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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

I had not written for a couple of weeks for the lack of a subject I might be passionate about. However, this morning, as I read others' comments in Face book, I came across the comment from an acquaintance of mine, who comments about Immigrants getting all the money that was cut from the Federal Budget. Specifically from the Veteran's Administration, as well as the cuts from SSI, and from Welfare benefits that "They (immigrants) Apply For"
I Am Sick And Tired. That the view that is held by those who, by the sheer luck of their birth, think that no one else who was not so chosen is entitled to anything that their country offers.
Yes, the facts and figures I researched before writing this post, do show statistics that Hispanics (which includes nationals from all of Latin America), are in a higher percentage. But in these figures and charts are also included other groups, which the Righteous Criticizers of the system fail to account for. They focus only on the immigrant (Hispanic) class and fail to see the rest of the groups included in the pie charts and columns, in which nearly every representative of our social strata is accounted for.
I Am Sick And tired. That even when examples of accomplishments of these immigrants and or their children are shown, these views continue to be expounded by these folks who have deemed themselves the spoke persons for America's Silent Society. Those of us who came here, from a place of little hope, of nothing to show for our hard work, those whose families worked hard to improve their lot once they got here. Those of us who went on the serve in our adopted country's military forces, those of our class, who died in the service of our adopted country's ideals.
When you read about why our country is in this condition, you realize one thing. It isn't the fault of the immigrants, nor is it the fault of the Self-Righteous I spoke about earlier (They want to strike at Something!!) or even of the non involved. I believe, after reading a large number of articles regarding this issue, that it is our own government's lack of foresight, of structure, of willingness to cooperate between each political party faction, and of the very politicians we elected to run this great nation.
The debacle which preceded the Budget Agreement, is a prime example of this inability to cooperate with each other. The whole episode became, in the end, a battle of wills between one party's leader and the other, while the national gears ground to a halt. I watched the news reports, as one politician back stabbed another, and I marveled at the cynicism and lack of integrity of each protagonist.
In the end, they agreed to cut here and to cut there and "balance the budget" (provisionally) so the nation could get back on it's feet. The veterans of the nation (among others) took a hit of one percent cut to their benefits. This includes recent battle wounded soldiers and retirees. But nowhere, nowhere in my research, did I read that these monies they had cut, were going to go to the immigrants in our midst, or their children somehow.
The issue of how did we get here, is easy to follow. The government, (those who at the time are running the show) be they of one party or the other, and their party allies in their chosen branches of service, have so burdened the system with their self interest, that it has become a management nightmare. Add to that, the all consuming War On Terror, and we have basis for our present situation.
I am a veteran of four years service in the US Navy, and while I understood at the time of my service, that I was signing four years of my life away to "Protect Our Way Of Life And Stop Communism From Advancing", I in no way was blind to the realities of war. Then as today, I still see war as a useless instrument, it accomplishes nothing, and in the end, after it is over: All we have done is sacrifice the youngest of our citizens, for a cause that often is undefinable and unwinnable. After 10+ years of war, our national health is in peril, it is clear as crystal when you read the reports and articles on the subject. I don't think we were wrong to initiate the "War" however, we as a nation must at some point decide that we have accomplished our purpose in the immediate sense, and try to stop the War Machine Advocacy and bring the mad spending to a stop, and in the process, begin to take care of American's Needs.
I Am Sick And Tired. That those who have come here looking for a better way of life, are blamed by the citizens of this country (Who, Ironically Descend From Immigrants Themselves), whose own politicians have literally bankrupted this nation. In the search for a scapegoat, it is easy to do, many of these immigrants will never learn English, so they can't talk back. Uncounted ones are certainly illegally here, so they won't speak out either, and are often openly discriminated against by the mere fact that of their skin color, their language, or their customs in their own sections of their cities, and yes, they do get deported when they get picked up by INS. and sent back.
I Am Sick And Tired. That while there is truth to the facts shown to us in the charts and studies, the blame continues to be placed on the immigrant from the south in regard to the current situation in our governmental spending nightmare. The reality is: America can not spend as it has, it can not wipe out terrorism world wide, it can not democratize foreign lands where democracy is unwanted, it can not change the world where change in unattainable!!.........
And so, America must look inside its own house, to its own people and resources and work to put it all back together, so that every one in America has the opportunity to work for that which they seek, be it a better life, better work, better shelter, education, and so on.
As a nation, we must demand from those in office, that they make the right decisions regarding wars, spending, immigration, education, budget balancing, to bring us back on the right track.
I Am sick And Tired Of Being Sick And Tired!!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

So I've spent some time today, writing about my life and enlarging the introductory, and the educational tabs on the blog. I checked on a few other blogs and differences were apparent to me as I read through them. As I thought, it is a learning experience, one which I am enjoying. Writing about one's self can be a bit daunting in terms of what one says, about one's self, without sounding......oh, I don't know...odd, is the only word that comes to mind right now.
At any rate, I don't know who all has looked at this blog other than my cousins Miguel, Marty, my wife Jo Anne and Perky Renner, (my wife's step-mom) although, it says that there has been 60+ views.
I wish that who ever reads it, might leave a comment as they leave, so I can get some feed back on what the see here. Ideally, I would expand my circles ever further and find a niche in cyberspace!!
As Time goes on, I would like to introduce some of my opinions on daily events in our country, our societal issues, weather in our part of the nation and so on. Today I wrote a comment on The President's hand shake with Raul Castro at the funeral for Nelson Mandela, and got the predictably hot responses from the far, far right!!!....it was not pretty!!
Some time back, during the initial steps of the "War On Terror", I was a staunch supporter of the endeavor, and still am, however, when it started to look like it was more of a "For Profit" enterprise at a cost of billions upon billions of dollars, well, it seemed to me that the purpose of the ideal had been lost.
As a result, I changed parties, and sought to elect into office those who would work for the betterment of our nation's best interests. I realize my vote alone changes nothing in the "Grand Scheme" of things, but it is the idea that it can, that makes us think that we can change things!!
It is this ideal, that separates our great nation from others in the world we live in. The thought that in our life time, we could see the Cuban Situation resolved, is exciting and somewhat scary at the same time, considering the amount of negativity surrounding the opportunity to do so. We don't know what will happen next, after all it was just a hand shake but, wouldn't it be nice??
Well, it is near dinner time for us here, and we are going to have Mexican Food tonight. I don't know about anybody else, but for us, Good Mexican Food is so hard to find!!....We have tried many places here in Vancouver, WA. and we just can not find a place where we can say; "Wow, this is good!!". Tonight we'll be getting our fare from Don Pedro's restaurant. We tried them a couple of weeks ago and it was okay, better than most other places we had tried, but still, not great!!. So, I'll see you on the other side of the page at a later date!!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

So, in search for new challenges during the cold winter months, I have decided to try my wings at: Blogging!!!!
Yeah, I know, me and 1000's of others right?. But fear not, I will delight you with tidbits of microscopic information of no value, and titillate you with tales of extraordinary something or other: As soon as I can think of them. And yes, as I grow and learn, these small musings Will Become Interesting To You (I Promise?).
As I find my way through the maze, and learn what I am doing in it, I may even post images of life that you might want to take a look at, so hang in there with me and see what happens.

I suppose that I could tell you about who I am: I am a retired Civil Service Worker, living in Washington with my wife Jo Anne, who is also retired from the Title Industry. We have been married for over three years and were life long friends before that!....
Life has a way of transecting our lives as we pass through, and it brought us together at a time when we were most ready for a "New Life" with each other.

As retirees, we spend our days bemoaning the fact that we are lucky that we don't have to work. Although our income is not enormous, we manage to live comfortably and have most things a couple could want (I think!). We thought of trying to move to Costa Rica, but after doing lots of fact findings, we decided that it would be better to stay in the Good Old USA!!

We have a toy poodle named Fifi, who has decided that, she's the Alpha dog of the house, and we spend many hours playing with her, or she'll growl and bark at us. She knows who the "Boss" is!!

We stay busy with trips to the gym, stores, playing computer games, house hold chores, yard work, a trip once a year, and other sundry things that elude me now.......
Oh yeah, we like to go camping, (Battle Ground State Park) in Clark County, WA.

Anyway, this is my debut as a "Blogger". It may not get me into the company of paid writers and such, but who knows??....

If you visit, and enjoy this peek, let me know!!......I will work on more of my special musings later on....

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About Me

63 year old retired husband, enjoying life in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Jo Anne. We have been married for nearly four years, but prior to that, we had been life time friends. I came to Vancouver with my prior wife Sharon, who passed away in 2010, from a reaction to medication. She had been chronically ill for ten years, and during one of our trips to UCLA for medical care, she lost her battle to her illness.

Jo Anne had been our friend as far back as the early seventies and had been living in Portland, Oregon for many years. Some time after arriving in Vancouver, I was able to reconnect us with her and we re-acquainted ourselves after a long time of not seeing each other's families. By this time however, she had been divorced and living on her own in southern Oregon. We arranged a meeting and we all met at the town of Cottage Grove.......It was great to re-connect as friends and the girls renewed their friendship, as if it had never been truncated....They spoke on the phone often and I would pepper their conversations with opinions and advice here and there.

After Sharon's passing, I remained in contact with Jo Anne and our friendship slowly transformed into a more intimate and personal relationship, we visited each other and before long, I realized that I wanted her to be part of my life!.....

I asked her to marry me on her birthday, March 15th, 2010 and she accepted. We got married on July 10th 2010 and have been happy ever since.

I have two grown children from my prior marriage. Jo Anne also has two grown children. We have a toy Poodle who rules our lives, and we keep busy with life and enjoyment of it.

Living in the Great Northwest is a joy, as we get to see the seasonal changes on the tree's foliage, weather and daylight hours. We both know we wouldn't live anywhere else after living here. It is magnificent!!

Spring and summer seasons are just outstanding for riding my Harley on those twisty roads with the trees glowing in their new leaves!!.....